OPINION: Colorado is the progressive state

Colorado has taken it into their own hands to lead the United States into the future.

The state government has become tired of waiting for the federal government to make decisions, thus they have rolled out revolutionary legislation that has brought very positive impacts. Colorado should become a model for other states to better themselves and their people.

In 2014, Colorado legalised both medical and recreational marijuana within its borders. As a result, Colorado has seen an economic boom. According to the Colorado Department of Public Safety, 2,538 licensed marijuana selling businesses opened between January of 2014 to December of 2015. Needless to say, many jobs were created along with the businesses. In 2015, the state of Colorado received $135,100,465 in tax dollars from the purchase of cannabis and $35,060,590 of that went to school capital construction assistance. The violent crime and property crime rate has also shown a decline since the legalization of cannabis in 2014.

Colorado has also took a stance to decrease the rate of unintended teenage pregnancies.

In 2008, The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment launched the Colorado Family Planning Initiative. Among other things, this initiative provided low or no cost long-acting reversible contraceptives to women. According to the CDPHE, 36,000 women had been provided with LARCs by the middle of 2015. Since implementation of the Colorado Family Planning Initiative teenage birth rates and abortion rates both dropped by nearly 50 percent in the state.

With such good results, why do other states not try to imitate what Colorado has been doing since 2008? Legalising cannabis and providing little to no cost contraceptives to young women have had fantastic results within Colorado. The United States must look past political parties and ideologies and focus on the statistics, focus on what works and Colorado's bold moves and legislations have simply worked.